Showing papers in "International Forum of Psychoanalysis in 2006"
TL;DR: The self establishes an object relation with the social system, as well as with the non-human environment, and whenever the community and its institutions fail to act as a container for individuals and groups, this generates a trauma, which can be compared with the baby's experience of a failure in mothering as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Psychoanalysis has traditionally overlooked the fact that unsuitable and damaging life conditions, originating in the social milieu, play a part in the pathogenesis of emotional suffering and mental disorders. Nonetheless, the self establishes an object relation with the social system, as well as with the non-human environment. This is expected to act as a container–contained relationship. Whenever the community and its institutions fail to act as a container for individuals and groups, this generates a trauma, which can be compared with the baby's experience of a failure in mothering. Such failures can be classified in several categories. The first is when the social system fails to contain, nurture, care for, and protect individuals, as in the case of the lack of assistance and compassion towards the victims of poverty, disease, natural catastrophe, social turmoil, economic crisis, violence, or war. The second category occurs when there is a blatant attack, on the part of the authorities or pri...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the author argues that if the analyst can open himself to the patient, this will result in more profound changes in the patient's implicit knowing than verbal interpretations in the narrative domain would lead to.
Abstract: Daniel Stern's concepts of “present moment” and “now moment,” with impending kairos, are described. In the latter, the patient demands the authentic presence of the analyst. If the analyst can open himself to the patient, he proposes that this will result in more profound changes in the patient's implicit knowing than verbal interpretations in the narrative domain would lead to. The value of intersubjectively relating and dwelling more in the phenomenal than in the narrative dimension is highlighted. A similarity to the works of the existential psychoanalyst Harold Kelman is shown. The author agrees with, but also problematises, a tendency to favour the implicit, devaluing verbal understanding and interpretation, which may result in the patient not seeing the primitive levels in his inner life. For this purpose, works from D. W. Winnicott, Jessica Benjamin and Christopher Bollas, as well as others, are used. The author concludes that object relations and intersubjective theory need to complement ...
17 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this article argued that the psychoanalytic inquiry should refer only to the internal, and that any attempt to inteference to external information should be restricted to internal information.
Abstract: Classical psychoanalysis tended to pose a sharp opposition between “internal” and “external,” arguing that the psychoanalytic inquiry should refer only to the internal, and that any attempt to inte...
16 citations
TL;DR: The concept of mental pain lies at the core of psychoanalysis; it was introduced by Freud and was further elaborated by a number of investigators, mostly by Bion as mentioned in this paper, and mental pain is derived from non-tolerance on the part of the psychic apparatus when it is harmed by very painful emotions.
Abstract: Mental pain and psychic suffering are herein defined as two separate concepts in psychoanalysis. The concept of mental pain lies at the core of psychoanalysis; it was introduced by Freud and was further elaborated by a number of investigators, mostly by Bion. Mental pain refers to a pain that the patient reports as being impossible to describe in words, and lacking any associations, whereas psychic suffering can be both named and described by the patient. Mental pain is derived from non-tolerance on the part of the psychic apparatus when it is harmed by very painful emotions. In contrast to psychic suffering, mental pain resists elaboration and transformation by dream-work. How to address and transform the patient's mental pain is a major challenge facing the analyst in his clinical work because mental pain may halt or slow the progression of the analytical process. To overcome this hindrance, the work of the analyst is focused on helping patients to modify their mental pain into psychic sufferin...
13 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an essential part of social psychology is the relationship between the leader and the led, which applies not only to leader-led dynamics in small groups, but even more dramatically to the leaders of masses and mobs.
Abstract: In 1921, in his ground-breaking Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse, Freud momentously redefined psychoanalysis, until then an individual psychology, as a social psychology. Whereas individual psychology had previously already been viewed as, de facto, interpersonal, even though not explicitly defined as such, Freud (1933a) unambiguously stated that “sociology, too, dealing as it does with the behaviour of people in society, cannot be anything but applied psychology,” and, by extension, applied social psychology as well. An essential part of social psychology is the relationship between the leader and the led. The latter applies not only to leader-led dynamics in small groups, but even more dramatically to the leaders of masses and mobs. Mass phenomena are seen as crucial to understanding diverse mass events in history: the two great World Wars of the 20th century and dictatorial fundamentalist political ideologies such as Fascism and Communism; and current events such as international terrorism an...
12 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relevance of relationally oriented psychoanalytic phenomenology as a frame of reference for understanding psychotic states in schizophrenia was examined from both a neurophysiological, and a relational and interpersonal point of view.
Abstract: This article examines the relevance of relationally oriented psychoanalytic phenomenology as a frame of reference for understanding psychotic states in schizophrenia. The etiology and structural characteristics of such states are examined from both a neurophysiological, and a relational and interpersonal point of view. Many findings indicate organic abnormalities in schizophrenia, acquired through an exposure to physical risk factors and genetic predisposition, but relational traumas also seem to have an impact on the form and content of psychotic states. This may happen through interruptions in the “use-dependent” maturation of the brain in a relational milieu. In addition, at the level of meaning-making, we find that the emotional and relational contexts—both past and present—give the substance or “raw material” for hallucinations and delusions. In a psychotic state, the person also tries to handle basic affects and relational needs, and to make meaning in states of overwhelming chaos and anxie...
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of fear of success in a female analysand is presented that illustrates the resolution of this syndrome through a mourning process in which the neurotic guilt of Melanie Klein's paranoid-schizoid position is transformed into the existential guilt of Klein's depressive position.
Abstract: Freud's conflation of neurotic and existential guilt is challenged in this paper. A study of fear of success in a female analysand is presented that illustrates the resolution of this syndrome through a mourning process in which the neurotic guilt of Melanie Klein's paranoid-schizoid position is transformed into the existential guilt of Klein's depressive position. An evolution within the depressive-position existential guilt is seen as the analysand mourns and separates from an internal mother and father, who are hostile to her developmental needs. This evolution involves the transformation of an idealizing transference, symptomatically enacted through gradations of vicarious living through the analyst, being profoundly transformed into the analysand's active creation of an identity in the world. Simultaneously, the internal world becomes alive in psychic fantasy. This transformation also involves the modification of an internal sabotaging psychic structure, which had been compelled by the disso...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a theory and practice of psychoanalyanalysis is discussed, but if we tried to clarify what this means, we would find many differences between one author and another.
Abstract: Psychoanalysis is a theory and practice of the symbol, but if we tried to clarify what this means, we would find many differences between one author and another. For this reason, to begin our paper...
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the unconscious roots of women's ambition from an object relations, developmental, and hermaneutic perspective, and explore dynamic, developmental and cultural forces that block female ambition's full flowering.
Abstract: This paper explores the unconscious roots of women's ambition from an object relations, developmental, and hermaneutic perspective. Three high-profile women's stories illustrate the formative and deformative power of narration: those of Hilary Clinton, Tina Turner, and the heroine of Phantom of the Opera. Each narrative reveals typical deformative constrictions to the expression of female ambition, including male abrogation of female capability and the denigration of ambition as unfeminine. Through clinical vignettes, this paper explores dynamic, developmental, and cultural forces that block female ambition's full flowering. Part of the need to keep women's ambition limited stems from the unconscious needs of the masculine psyche for superiority. This is communicated to little girls through their mothers' internalized parental imagoes, including their mothers' identification with their mothers and their own oedipal struggles. Similarly, the father's unconscious anxieties in relation to his parent...
5 citations
TL;DR: Ruderma et al. as mentioned in this paper found that women remain fixed in early familial internalizations and identifications, and find themselves repeating patterns of self-sabotage that impede their success.
Abstract: The relational approach to psychotherapy, furthered by the analyst's use of the transference-countertransference paradigm, can create the gateway to explore and understand patients’ internal barriers to growth. The analysis can then help patients to achieve a more integrated self-view that allows them to enjoy success and fulfillment in both their private and their public lives. Even as they strive for their own self-definition, women hold onto old relational ties. In this paper, two case examples are used to elucidate the complex relationships that women have with their earliest caregivers. The cases demonstrate how women remain fixed in early familial internalizations and identifications, and find themselves repeating patterns of self-sabotage that impede their success. Ellen G. Ruderma. Angst vor Erfolg. Selbstpflege und Selbstsabotage: Psychoanalytische Perspektiven zur weiblichen Angst vor Erfolg. Der relationale Zugang zur Psychotherapie, erganzt durch die Verwendung der Ubertragung und Geg...
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a psychoanalyst, Jan, who worked at Barnängsgatan in Stockholm for more than 25 years, has announced his retirement after a long career as psychoanalyser.
Abstract: C.S.: Jan, you are retiring after a long career as psychoanalyst. I’ll miss you! We have been working together since 1976*/more than 25 years. We shared a practice first at Bastugatan, then at Katarina Bangata, and for the past twenty years we have been working at Barnängsgatan in Stockholm. When did you start to work as an analyst? Do you remember why you became an analyst? And how many patients have you treated during your career?
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider questions of danger and safety in the analytic relationship in light of the contemporary recognition of analysis as a co-participatory process, and the analyst aspires not to preempt all negative impact but to create an analytic environment in which the analysand's conscious and unconscious communications about impact may be attended to.
Abstract: This paper considers questions of danger and safety in the analytic relationship in light of the contemporary recognition of analysis as a co-participatory process. In the interest of safety, the psychoanalyst has the responsibility to be persistently curious, particularly about the problems derived from his contact with the analysand. Information about the analyst's impact must be taken to heart; it must be experientially considered. As the process unfolds, the analyst presumes that a portion of its effect will be negative. The analyst aspires not to preempt all negative impact but to create an analytic environment in which the analysand's conscious and unconscious communications about impact may be attended to. The analyst's ability to receive such information is crucial in the establishment of a reliable process capable of addressing and surviving the unanticipated dangers that inevitably emerge and securing the analysand for further self articulation. The analyst can simultaneously attend to ...
TL;DR: Ruderman discusses the challenge that contemporary professional women still face in a sexist society and from their own inner critic as discussed by the authors, and shows how a relational approach to the treatment of women can empower women to overcome both external and internalized sexism.
Abstract: Ruderman discusses the challenge that contemporary professional women still face in a sexist society and from their own inner critic. She shows how a relational approach to the treatment of women can empower women to overcome both external and internalized sexism. It is suggested that as patriarchy has been challenged, there has been a backlash against feminism. Urban professional men rebel against feminism by aspiring to become playboys who will never stop “playing the field.” The playboy mentality creates a challenge for contemporary professional women who may not wish their boyfriends or husbands to be spending so much time seeking sexual gratification through Internet pornography, lap dances at strip clubs, massages with happy endings, or clandestine affairs. Lawrence Josephs. Diskussion von: …. Rudermann diskutiert die Herausforderungen, denen heutige Frauen im Berufsleben begegnen. Einerseits haben sie in einer sexistischen Gesellschaft und andererseits gegenuber ihrer innerpsychischen Selb...
TL;DR: In relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the patient's search for the otherness of the therapist is a prerequisite for change and development as mentioned in this paper, and the need for intersubjective "depth" is regarded as a main motivational force.
Abstract: This paper is a theoretical and clinical examination of the patient's search for the otherness of the therapist as a prerequisite for change and development in relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A basic assumption is that being in a relationship as well as being a personal self, is to be understood, as being with a “meaning-bearing other”; that is, someone who allows for the possibility of meaningful thoughts and feelings, either through an actual communicative presence or as a consciously, prereflective, or unconsciously imagined communication partner. The term “meaning-bearing other” is used to differentiate distinct, although often synchronic, modes of relatedness. The need for intersubjective “depth”—that is, to discover the otherness of the other, and for oneself to be recognized as an experiencing subject—is regarded as a main motivational force. Winnicott's, as well as Sullivan's developmental approaches, Mitchell and Aron's views on psychoanalytic interaction, and Heidegger and Gada...
TL;DR: Jimenez Rosas as discussed by the authors presents a point of view about how Mexican women who have achieved economical and professional freedom see their process of liberation through several unconscious social, cultural, and family filters.
Abstract: This paper presents a point of view about how Mexican women who have achieved economical and professional freedom see their process of liberation through several unconscious social, cultural, and family filters. Would it be a form of social perversion not to analyse the delay in their emotional maturity related to cultural patterns, unresolved psychic conflicts, and the social unconscious? Gila Jimenez Rosas. Die emotionale Entwicklung von Frauen: Eine Form von sozialer Perversion. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Selbstverstandnis mexikanischer Frauen, die okonomische und soziale Befreiung verwirklicht haben. Diese Frauen sehen aber ihren Befreiungsprozess nicht klar, sondern verschleiert durch verschiedene unbewusste soziale, kulturelle und familiare Gegebenheiten. Es scheint eine Art sozialer Perversion in ihren verspateten emotionalen Reifeprozessen vorzuliegen, dies auf Grund von kulturellen Mustern und ungelosten unbewussten Konflikten. Gila Jimenez Rosas. El desarrollo emocional de la muj...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the current crisis in psychoanalysis in terms of the profession's decline, the apparent lack of patients, the ongoing debate over what constitutes psychoanalysis versus other therapies, and the lack of clinical focus in those debates.
Abstract: This paper will examine the current crisis in psychoanalysis in terms of the profession's decline, the apparent lack of patients, the ongoing debate over what constitutes psychoanalysis versus other therapies, and the lack of clinical focus in those debates. The concept of analytic contact will be introduced, and clinical material is used to showcase this concept as a bridge from the circular political debates to a more meaningful examination of what is psychoanalytic. In addition, case material will explore how patients tend to fight off the establishment of analytic contact in favor of safer, less threatening modes of relating. The author suggests that most patients fight off analytic contact and try to shift the treatment into something less analytic. It is up to the analyst to detect this, interpret it, and notice any countertransference collusion that may occur. Although the state of psychoanalysis as a profession is less than stellar in the eyes of the public, and the profession is apt to s...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the broad scope of information that these different types of archive may yield, and the question of archives also brings up issues such as psychoanalytic legacy and its transmission.
Abstract: What kinds of archive can be employed to reconstruct the history of psychoanalysis in a particular country? In addition to official and institutionally controlled archives, there are private archives created by people who, for personal reasons, have collected documents of particular interest to themselves pertaining to the transmission of a psychoanalytic legacy. This article highlights the broad scope of information that these different types of archive may yield. The question of archives also brings up issues such as psychoanalytic legacy and its transmission. Jan Stensson took an interest in psychoanalysis during a period of conflict and controversy within the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society (associated to the IPA). He chose to join forces with a small group of dissidents who severed their ties with the Swedish society. Carl Lesche (1920–1993) was highly influential within the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society from the late 1950s up to his death. He was driven by the notion of “pure psychoanalysis...
TL;DR: The growing ill-health in Sweden is related to the crisis of the welfare state and globalization and the expansion of a new virtual reality affecting the conceptualization of time and space, as well as to wider areas of human interaction, thinking, and ethical judgment as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The growing ill-health in Sweden is related to the crisis of the welfare state and to globalization and the expansion of a new virtual reality affecting the conceptualization of time and space, as well as to wider areas of human interaction, thinking, and ethical judgment. Fear and anxiety are emotional states of mind that have widespread effects on an individual level as well as on the whole of society.
TL;DR: In this article, eleven articles, mostly revised and originally published between 1977 and 2001, witness the construction of a psychoanalytic style that is original and, at the same time, original and original.
Abstract: This volume contains eleven articles, mostly revised and originally published between 1977 and 2001, which witness the construction of a psychoanalytic style that is original and, at the same time,...
TL;DR: Martinsson as mentioned in this paper proposed that the Mima can be seen as a metaphor for the infant mind, having creative mimetic faculties, and that the single most important realm of mimicry and auto-plastic adaptation is basic trust and empathy.
Abstract: The Swedish Nobel prize winner Harry Martinsson is introduced in this paper, and his epic science fiction poem Aniara is presented. Mima, a miraculous accessor and transmitter of information from all over the universe, is juxtaposed to Sandor Ferenczi's concept of mimicry and Wittgenstein's views on aspect-seeing. It is proposed that the Mima can be seen as a metaphor for the infant mind, having creative mimetic faculties. The single most important realm of mimicry and auto-plastic adaptation is basic trust and empathy. Mimicry is thus suggested to be our deepest and most extensive way of knowing the other as well as ourself, although without cognitive structure. It is basic to Wittgenstein's ‘aspect-seeing’, that is immediately seeing another person's behaviour as expressive of a human mind.
TL;DR: The coparticipant approach as mentioned in this paper integrates the individualistic emphasis of classical theory and the social focus of participant-observation, avoiding the reductionism of each of the two paradigms.
Abstract: Historically, two paradigms have been dominant in clinical psychoanalysis: the classical paradigm, which views the impersonal analyst as objective mirror, and the interpersonal/relational model, which views the analyst as intersubjective participant-observer. An evolutionary shift in psychoanalytic consciousness has, however, been quietly taking place, giving rise to coparticipant inquiry, a third paradigm that integrates the individualistic emphasis of classical theory and the social focus of participant-observation, avoiding the reductionism of each. This new perspective, which is rooted in the radical teachings and clinical experiments of Sandor Ferenczi, represents a significant shift in analytic theory and has major clinical implications. This essay articulates the seven guiding principles of coparticipant inquiry and reviews its contribution to the psychoanalytic theory of therapeutic action. The curative process of reconstructive new experience in the analytic situation, referred to as the...
TL;DR: In this article, Shechter explores Wrye's deconstructive methods of feminist theory-building and applies Wryes unconscious saboteur concept to clinical work with men, showing the universal pan-gender nature of the concept.
Abstract: This discussion explores Wrye's deconstructive methods of feminist theory-building. Wrye contends that sociocultural factors establish Freud's construct “Anatomy is destiny” as a deforming norm and lead to an unconscious saboteur in women. Shechter applies Wrye's unconscious saboteur to clinical work with men, showing the universal pan-gender nature of Wrye's concept. Shechter proposes that Wrye's clinical ideas tap the essence of developmental theory and thus bridge schools of psychoanalytic thought; whether a psychoanalyst interprets drive, self object, or relational images, gender integration occurs when libido is satisfied in a milieu of accepting subjectivity. Gender meanings become malleable and better describe both feminine and masculine self as personal narratives transform. Roberta Ann Shechter. Die universelle Natur der Subjektivitat der Geschlechter und der unbewussten Saboteure: Diskussion der Arbeit von …. Diese Diskussion erforscht Wryes Auflosung von feministischer Theoriebildung. ...
TL;DR: Shane et al. as mentioned in this paper explored why women have trouble with their own deeply held ambitions, how patterns of interaction with important others are internalized in their childhood years that render their own strivings for power unacceptable to them, and how this early sense of prohibition against achievement is reinforced by the larger social and cultural surround.
Abstract: This paper explores the dilemmas women face when they strive to achieve. It is about why women have trouble with their own deeply held ambitions, how patterns of interaction with important others are internalized in their childhood years that render their own strivings for power unacceptable to them, and how this early sense of prohibition against achievement is reinforced by the larger social and cultural surround. I contend that these interdictions against success are held by the female both in and out of her awareness, and are evoked in situations that trigger pathogenic memories in ever more complex ways. I explore current concepts about gender and gender formation, in particular the ideas of Adrienne Harris articulated in her book, Gender as Soft Assembly. Two clinical cases are described in order to explore and illustrate these issues, one a child and the other an adult. Estelle Shane. Madchen, ihre Vater und Mutter: Verbindende Muster zu Erfolgsstreben und Verboten im Leben von Frauen. Die...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the historical antecedents and contemporary climate for the issue of mutual analysis and analytic mutuality more generally, as well as the essential questions common to the panel as a whole.
Abstract: This introduction to the two-paper panel, “Reconsidering questions regarding mutual analysis,” provides a context for the two papers that follow. The historical antecedents and contemporary climate for the issue of mutual analysis–and analytic mutuality more generally–are described. Each author's contribution is introduced, as are the essential questions common to the panel as a whole.
TL;DR: The authors examines the role of the analyst in co-creating the sado-masochistic enactments so common in the transference/countertransference with borderline analysands.
Abstract: This paper, in case material, examines the role of the analyst is co-creating the sado-masochistic enactments so common in the transference/countertransference with borderline analysands Emphasis is placed on how to resolve the enactments so that a new paradigm is created based on trust and cooperation